Did Arsenal 'win the Premier League' with 4-0 victory at Leeds?

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Evening Standard

·31 January 2026

Did Arsenal 'win the Premier League' with 4-0 victory at Leeds?

The Gunners are back on track after a three-match winless run

Arsenal’s 4-0 victory over Leeds has been described as “the game that won” the Gunners the Premier League title.

A commanding performance from Mikel Arteta’s league leaders at Elland Road re-established a seven-point cushion at the top of the table, with both of their main title challengers - Manchester City and Aston Villa - in action on Sunday, at Tottenham and at home to Brentford respectively.

The Gunners also now boast the division’s best goal difference (+29), another potentially useful advantage in the home stretch of the campaign.

There are still 14 league games to be played by Arteta’s crew, and 15 for the majority of the chasing pack.

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It may also be worth noting that the Gunners held an eight-point lead in April of the 2022/23 season, only to relinquish the title to City that year.

Regardless, in the view of at least one pundit, this weekend’s victory “was the game that won Arsenal the Premier League.”

The Premier League title appears to be Arsenal’s to lose

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That pundit is Paul Merson, who praised the Gunners as “outstanding” after full-time on Saturday.

“There was a lot of pressure on them because I thought if they got beat, the scrutiny was going to increase,” he said.

"However, they have gone seven points clear again with a win at a really hard place to go in Elland Road.

"At times, it was like boys vs men. Arsenal just brushed them aside. They were A+.

Merson, who came up through Arsenal’s academy before winning several league and cup titles with the club in the late 1980s and early 1990s, continued: "The squad is just phenomenal. Noni Madueke comes in for Bukayo Saka and gets two assists. There were five players that came on in [Gabriel] Martinelli, [Eberechi] Eze, [Martin] Odegaard, [Gabriel] Jesus and [Riccardo] Calafiori - what team don't they get in?

"That was the game that won Arsenal the Premier League. Man City now have to go to Tottenham and win."

The first clues as to whether or not Merson is proven right will lie in Sunday’s games, as Pep Guardiola’s City machine and Unai Emery’s Villa dark horses aim to close the gap again.